Breakable
by Skylar Vega
Summary: The search for a new enemy continues while Horatio's secret starts to put a strain on his marriage. HN, EC. WIP.
1. Chapter 1

**Breakable**  
By Skylar

_--_

_There is no such thing as an omen.  
Destiny does not send us heralds.  
She is too wise or too cruel for that.  
--Oscar Wilde_

_--_

He sat on the front steps of his porch, watching contentedly as his daughter attempted to run across the lawn and feeling both too old and too young at the same time.

It's what he'd heard his whole life, that children keep you young and energetic, but sometimes watching her he couldn't help feel his life had been a long, drawn out journey and that this was only the beginning. Watching her playing, so tiny and innocent, barely able to run, he couldn't help feeling _ancient_.

She squealed and tripped on the uneven ground and began to fall on the grass face first, but her mother quickly caught her by the armpits and lifted her up, and the child giggled happily as Natalia blew a raspberry across her neck.

Horatio smiled, watching them, feeling his heart expanding and elevating him like a hot air balloon. Hard to believe that mere years before he'd been the most miserable man in Miami, a bonafide workaholic, so obsessed with chasing after bad guys, the corrupt, that his own house was but a mere group of bare walls he rarely thought of as 'home'. Hard to believe there was a time when he thought that would never change. Hard to believe it actually did, and so drastically, too.

Sometimes he wondered if he was actually asleep.

Natalia put the child on the ground and whispered something in her ear, and with her hands in her mouth little Violet Caine began to run towards her father. As she neared him she tripped again, but Horatio quickly came to her aid and she giggled as she sucked on her index finger. That was another thing about having children, they're a constant and surprising source of energy. Well into his fifties, he never thought he'd find the strength within him to keep up with a toddler, but he did, every day, and though sometimes he lay in bed at night, completely exhausted, he found himself doing it again, day after day, and the day after he did it again.

Mr. Mom. That's what they liked to call him now and the found the title to be very apropos. When Natalia announced she was pregnant he was forced to sit back and analyze the situation from all angles. They didn't exactly have the safest jobs in the city, nor the most reliable, and the idea of bringing a child into the mix had created an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. It seemed like every week he found himself barely fleeing a fleet of bullets, a chorus of explosions, a bank of surprise attacks. The more he worked, the less gratitude he received and the more threats, the more enemies he left behind. He was fine fending for himself. He did relatively okay keeping himself and Natalia safe. But to bring a child into the world, an innocent, defenseless child, had unnerved him beyond belief.

And so when the county offered him a very generous retirement package he took it, said goodbye to the chases and the shootings, to the arrests and the sneers, and said hello to diapers and two am feedings, to Dora the Explorer and finger painting.

Natalia remained at the lab and he was fine with that. She wasn't a detective like the rest of them were, and so rarely found herself having to deal with the suspects, making her job relatively safe. Still he couldn't help calling her throughout the day, because you don't become a lieutenant for one of the biggest cities in the country without adopting a great deal of paranoia, but for the most part he felt himself at peace for the first time since he'd been a child.

It'd been hard to get used to at first, but knowing all this peace, feeling this love for his family, he was sure he wouldn't trade it for the world.

Natalia walked over and sighed, somewhat out of breath, flinging a blanket over her shoulder.

Horatio smiled at her disheveled look. "You alright?"

"Where does she get all this energy?" she exclaimed humorously.

Horatio chuckled. "Her mother has often been described as a category 5 hurricane, and they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Natalia narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you talking about me?" she said innocently and smiled. "I still think you're putting coffee in her milk."

With a dramatic gesture, she let her butt fall on the front steps of the porch and she ran her hand through her sweaty forehead, reveling in the ocean breeze that reached the small house. Horatio sat next to her and Violet immediately squirmed out of his arms and seated herself on the plastic tricycle she found on the porch. Horatio kept a close eye on her as she began to wheel herself through the small space.

"I like Sundays."

He looked at his wife and found her smiling at nothing. She looked at him, her eyes bright and full of energy, and he couldn't help planting a soft kiss on her lips. She smiled and let her head rest on his shoulder, where it'd always belonged, threading her fingers through his.

"Me too," he said contemplatively.

Still felt like a dream sometimes. He supposed it was only rational and not prognostic that he lived in fear of waking up.

_to be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Breakable**  
By Skylar

_--_

_Every saint has a past  
and every sinner has a future.__  
--Oscar Wilde_

--

Violet hugged her teddy bear tight until her eyelids flickered shut and she drifted off to sleep, and Horatio watched her until he made sure she wouldn't wake up, asking to sleep with them again. He left the night light on and returned to the bedroom, where Natalia lay under the covers, looking exhausted. He turned the lamps off and climbed into bed, snaking an arm around her waist and she settled comfortably in his embrace.

While on the force he was often described as the savior, the man with a cape, everyone's protector, but the truth was it was Natalia who'd saved him, dragged him from out of the shadows and showed him a world of color and laughter. She lived her life the way she wanted to live it, wasn't often scared of being silly or crazy, always found the positive side of every situation. Her energy and humor had infected him, made him a more content person, made him think of life outside of work. He'd taken care of her many times, always physically, but it was her who'd saved his soul.

She'd randomly shown up in his office one afternoon to ask him to sign some papers. She noticed the pictures of Madison he had on his desk and before he knew it she had him talking about his little niece, about her father and mother and all the struggles he'd gone through to keep them safe. She sat there listening, fascinated, and he sat there feeling awkward, having never been one to open up to anyone and yet feeling grateful that there was someone willing to listen.

So when her stomach growled loudly it was only polite to offer to take her out to dinner, and to his surprise he found himself enjoying her company greatly. Natalia wasn't like any of the other women he'd dated. She was strong, independent, fun. She liked to laugh, and liked to get him laughing, a task that had never been easy for anyone. She was carefree and easygoing. She dragged him to fairs and parks. She showed him life was more than work, way more than paperwork and DNA analysis and fingerprint identification.

She felt what she felt and when she felt it. She laughed when she was happy, cried over sappy movies, liked to hit pillows when she was mad. She was a hurricane. It hadn't always been easy to be with someone so in tune with their emotions, when he was so withdrawn and introverted, but it'd been an amazing ride nonetheless.

She sighed loudly and lay on her back, allowing him the opportunity to slide his hand over her flat stomach. Natalia put her hand over his and looked over her shoulder. "This one's a boy," she said wistfully. "I can feel it."

"Hmm, I recall you saying the same thing about Violet."

"It's different now."

He smiled. Natalia had instincts. Horribly inaccurate instincts, but there was no way he would tell her that. She liked to predict things that very rarely panned out. He merely gave her her victories and ignored her failures. It was amusing for the most part.

He knew she was dying to have a boy, though she would never admit to that. Him, he could go either way, having already learned the joy of having a daughter, he wouldn't mind going through some of the experiences they'd already gone through with Violet. Little girls with their little feet and their girly things, every time he saw his daughter he fell in love with her over and over again. To add another little girl to the family, he'd consider himself the luckiest man in the world.

Mostly he was happy about the new addition to the family. It was still strange, waking up every morning and finding he was responsible for his two girls. Having Madison and Ray Jr. was different, as much as he tried to be in their lives they weren't much a part of his. They went home to their mothers at the end of the day. But Natalia and Violet, they depended on him and as exciting as it was, it was also terrifying. But he figured if he could survive the first year of Violet's life, he could survive anything.

Natalia drifted to sleep quickly and he soon followed, and the next day he woke up restless, feeling weird and stressed and for no reason that he could think of, but he put that out of his mind as he followed the retching noises that came from the bathroom. He found his wife curled around the toilet and Horatio winced watching her. Though the birth was actually the most painful part, he always found morning sickness to be the worst.

He put a hand towel under water and pressed it against her forehead, and she leaned into the wall and sighed.

"It'll go away soon," she reassured him.

He smiled at her, feeling irrationally guilty. "I have nowhere to go."

Natalia smiled at him. "Yeah, you do, you better get Bibi before she somersaults out of her crib Spider-Man style."

Horatio smiled and stood up, and when he walked into his daughter's room he found her jumping on her crib. She extended her arms out to him happily and he picked her up. Her red hair stuck out in all directions.

"Miss Violet, you might be getting too big for this crib," he told her and she laughed, but he couldn't help feeling nostalgic. Sometimes it felt like she'd just been born two minutes ago and now she was ready to graduate into a big girl bed. Well, _she_ was ready. If it were up to him he'd keep her in that crib until she turned 35.

From the hallway he could hear the shower running, and so he went downstairs and settled Violet on her high chair as he prepared a bottle. He filled a small bowl with Cheerios and put it in front of her, and she began to eat from it happily before he gave her a bottle and she stuck it into her mouth.

He broke a couple of eggs and began to beat them, knowing it would probably be futile to prepare a breakfast for two, but he continued just in case. He heard Natalia rush down the stairs just as he began to butter the toast and he knew what that meant.

"I'm so late," she said as she hurriedly grabbed a piece of toast from his hands.

Horatio looked at his empty hands and then watched her, a tad concerned. "Two days in a row you've skipped breakfast."

"I know," she moaned, kissing the top of her daughter's head. Violet squealed and tried to grab her face. "I just can't keep anything down."

He nodded understandingly. Pregnancy wasn't often conducive to healthy choices, but he still worried. Then again, there wasn't much else to do these days.

"Don't give me that look," she said, her hands perched upon her hips, and Horatio smiled sheepishly. "Look, pretty soon the weird cravings will start again and then you'll be paying the paperboy to come over and wrestle a box of donuts out of my hands."

Horatio nodded. "Well, I would, except you killed him for that, remember?"

"Well, then, I hope the new paperboy tastes better," she said humorously, grabbing her purse quickly and coming over to give him five consecutive pecks on his lips. "I love you."

"Love you too." He watched her kiss Violet and then scurry out of the house and he sighed, putting a lone plate of eggs and toast on the table. Violet had already made a mess with her Cheerios and milk, managing somehow to get a few pieces of cereal in her hair. He ate his breakfast while she played, but she soon grew restless and he let her out of her high chair so she could wander around.

He liked fatherhood, he really did. And retirement was relaxing. But often times he found he missed the lab, missed the action and the cases and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Work had always been an addiction for him, probably the reason why he'd often been so miserable and lonely. But at the same time he missed the rush and the euphoria that came with putting the bad guys away, with giving peace of mind to the families of the victims. He didn't regret his choice. He loved his family and wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. But sometimes he wished he could have it all.

"George," Violet said, pulling on his pant leg. "George, dada."

Horatio sighed and stood up. Ryan Wolfe had come up with the ingenious idea of giving Violet a duckling for her first birthday. Everyone thought it was the most adorable thing in the world, except the CSI apparently never thought about the fact that ducks are hard work, and they don't exactly make the most practical pets. The animal now lived in their backyard, had taken over Violet's plastic pool and spent most of his time quacking loudly. Horatio thought about giving the thing away, but Violet had grown so attached to the thing she couldn't go one day without hassling him to take her to see the forsaken animal, which had been baptized George by Wolfe himself.

Horatio picked her up and she grinned in anticipation. He walked outside, squinting at the Florida sun, and quickly realized there was something strange in the air. Before heading to the back he noticed the mailbox flag was up and he frowned, wondering why the mailman had made his round earlier than usual. With Violet making quacking sounds he walked over, reaching inside but instead of finding letters or bills he saw but a lone piece of paper.

He reached for it, turning it in his hand quickly, and the message written on it instantly made his heart drop. He felt chilly and sweaty as he read it again, and he quickly looked around the quiet neighborhood, attempting to recognize anything that looked out of the ordinary, but nothing particularly stood out.

"Dada, George," Violet reminded him again and Horatio looked at the note gravely. Holding it by a corner he held his daughter tighter and headed back into the house despite Violet's protestations.

At the end of the street, a nondescript car slowly drove away.

_to be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

**Breakable: Chapter 3**  
By Skylar

--

_A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.  
-- Oscar Wilde_

--

He never got used to this part.

No matter how many times he visited the lab now, he never got used to being just a mere 'visitor'. He never got used to the scrutiny and all the security questions and all the apologies because even though they all know him, "it's just for security reasons, you understand that, right?"

He did, in a way, but in a way he couldn't get used to the idea of not being one of them anymore.

One thing that did change was the look on people's faces when he walked into the lab. Now that he could no longer fire them for whatever reason, they were beyond ecstatic to see him, crowding around Violet and proclaiming her cuteness to the world, asking him how retirement was treating him—they never talked to him so casually while he'd been the boss. Now they all treated him like an old pal.

All, of course, but one.

"Lieutenant Caine," Valera said wearily, approaching him hesitantly the way she always did.

Horatio smiled at her. Smiling was something that naturally occurred in the presence of Valera. "I was a Lieutenant two years ago, Valera."

"I know, sir," she said nervously. "I mean, sir or, Mr. Caine—"

"Horatio."

"Yes, sir," She smiled sheepishly and when Violet became interested in her necklace her features softened and she cooed. "Aw, she's so beautiful! May I?"

"Tell you what," Horatio said, handing his daughter over to Valera's eager hands, "why don't you hang on to her for a while? I, um, I'm gonna go say hi to Calleigh."

"Sure," Valera said, bouncing the baby on her hip and allowing her to play with her necklace. She stood there even after Horatio walked away, kissing and cuddling with the baby and cooing an assortment of sweet words in a strange baby-ish tone. Ryan walked out of the layout room then, and upon seeing her with Violet he stopped, his eyebrows furrowed.

Valera noticed him there and showed him the baby. "Oh, Ryan," she implored.

"_No_."

-----

He never, as a lieutenant, spent more than two consecutive hours in his office. To him, it was just four walls a desk and some chairs, an impersonal place for him to sit down and do paperwork. But as he stood there now, knocking on the door, he couldn't help feel a great deal of nostalgia.

"Come in."

He pushed the door open and smiled at the sight, Calleigh Duquesne sitting behind the large desk, piles of files in front of her and looking so natural in that position he could've sworn she'd been born there. She smiled brightly when she saw him, and Horatio willingly received her in his arms as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Retirement must be doing wonders for you, you look great!" she said, chipper and carefree.

Horatio raised his eyebrows notably. "Well, if I'd known the fountain of youth was in this office I would've spent more time here."

"Well aren't you a sweetheart," Calleigh replied, her Southern accent more intense than usual and happier than Horatio remembered her. Hard to believe Ryan wasn't exaggerating when he often described her management style as The Reign of Khan.

Of course, Horatio wasn't her employee, so he had no way of proving if the rumors were true.

He smiled. "How's Mariana?"

"Ugh," Calleigh complained humorously, returning to her chair. "She's two, and being an absolute terror about it."

Horatio nodded. "The terrible twos."

"She'll be three in two weeks, you have no idea how much we're looking forward to it," she said. "Violet's coming to the party, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Good," Calleigh smiled, grabbing a pen and a new file and placing it in front of her. "So what brings you here?"

Horatio pressed his lips together a tad somberly, glad her attention was on the file. "I, uh," he began, reaching into his jacket pocket to produce a small ziplock bag. "I found this in my mailbox this morning."

Calleigh looked up, her attention quickly caught by the ziplock bag. She reached for it, curiously looking at the small piece of paper inside. She flipped it on to its right side, finally catching the writing, and when she read the note all traces of merriment faded from her features and she looked at Horatio seriously, found him looking at the carpet.

"Who sent you this?"

Horatio raised his eyebrows. "I was hoping you'd tell me."

She looked at the note again. The message didn't demand any money, any weapons, or asked to release anyone from prison. The sender didn't seem interested in anything, except 'Caine blood.'

"This is a death threat," she noted gravely.

"It would appear so," Horatio said, and though he looked and tried to sound normal, appear normal, his heart beat irregularly and he shifted wearily from one foot to the other.

Calleigh frowned. "Was it mailed?"

"No, ma'am."

"Hand delivered. So they know where you live," she sighed, morphing quickly into cop mode. "Did you see anybody suspicious in your neighborhood, today or in the past week?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Horatio said. Calleigh read the note again and he watched, wondering if he was making a big deal out of nothing but something told him he wasn't. In all his years in the force he'd learned to take all death threats seriously, even if they did turn out to be somebody's idea of a sick joke, because in case it wasn't the consequences could be fatal.

And he would've dealt with it on his own. Five years ago he would've patrolled the streets day and night without giving his safety a second thought. Five years ago he would've investigated on his own, wouldn't have dared ask for help. A simple gun under his pillow and just wait for all hell to break loose -- but he had a family now, and he knew that if something happened to them they might as well kill him cold blood.

He looked up quickly when he heard a knock on the door, and seconds later Eric's voice filled the room. The CSI called Calleigh's name and without waiting for a response opened the door, and upon seeing his old boss there he stopped and grinned.

"H," Eric greeted him, giving him a quick hug.

"Eric, how are you?" Horatio said, patting his arm.

"Not as good as you look," Eric noted with a cheeky smile. "Retirement must be treating you like a queen."

Horatio smiled as best as he could. "No complaints about that, no complaints."

"You taking Natalia out to lunch?" Eric said.

Horatio looked down briefly before he looked at Calleigh, and just as she was about to send Eric away he shook his head. She understood quickly, but hesitated a moment before she nodded back and took a deep breath, looking down at her desk.

"Could you close the door, Eric?" she asked him, and Eric frowned slightly, scratching the side of his head, at the request. The friendly atmosphere quickly changed to something tense and awkward. Calleigh stood up and walked round to the front of her desk to sit on it, and when he returned she handed him the ziplock bag.

Eric looked down at it, confused, and when he realized there was a note written inside he brought it closer to his eyes. He read the message, his face hardening into a frown, and he looked at the two people in front of him in confusion. "What's this?"

"It was in Horatio's mailbox," Calleigh explained.

Eric looked at his old boss, worried. "Someone threatening you, H?"

Horatio took a deep breath. "I was hoping you could dust it, for fingerprints, tell me everything you can about it."

Eric shook his head, looking at the note again. "H, there's no—"

"I need you to do this, Eric," Horatio repeated, his tone just a tad more desperate but still not betraying his cool exterior. "I wouldn't be here if I thought you couldn't get something out of it."

Eric took a deep breath and looked at him, a tad reluctantly, because as far as he could see it was a normal piece of paper and the handwriting wasn't particularly unique. "Alright, I'll do what I can."

"Good."

Calleigh looked from Eric to Horatio. "How's Natalia?"

Horatio looked at her, looked down and hesitated. "I, uh, I haven't told her yet."

Calleigh frowned at him. "You have to tell her."

"I don't want her to worry," Horatio said.

"She has to know," Eric added. "Someone put this in your mailbox, they know you have a family."

"She's in her first trimester, the stress could—" Horatio said and stopped, gathering his thoughts and trying to avoid going somewhere dark. "I don't want her to worry unless it's absolutely necessary."

Calleigh looked at Eric, and though he seemed as reluctant about Horatio's request as her he remained quiet. She looked down and nodded. "Okay. But I'm sending a surveillance car to your house—"

Horatio shook his head. "Calleigh—"

"Horatio," she said sternly. "I'm not arguing with you, I'm giving out an order."

Horatio bit the inside of his lip and looked down, feeling scolded, and suddenly Ryan's protestations began to make sense. Next to him Eric grinned.

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Calleigh added. "Just a couple of days until everything's back to normal."

Horatio nodded. "I appreciate it."

She smiled. "Okay."

"I'll, uh, I'll take this to Cynthia, she might be able to tell us something," Eric said.

"Alright, this is between us, Eric," Horatio said.

"Yeah," Eric said, putting the ziplock bag away. "H, if you need anything, you know you can call. We have an extra room, you can stay with us for a couple of days."

"It's alright, Eric," Horatio said appreciatively. "Thank you."

"Hang in there," Eric said, patting Horatio on the shoulder before he walked out of the office.

"He's right, you know," Calleigh said. "You should at least get a hotel room."

Horatio shook his head adamantly. "I'm not gonna let this guy chase me out of my house."

Calleigh nodded slowly. "You still have your gun?"

Horatio smiled. "Yes."

Calleigh looked at him and took a deep breath, and letting out slowly she crossed her arms in front of her. "I'll go down to the warehouse, try to find as many relevant files as I can."

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking it's someone who was recently released from prison," Horatio said.

"Revenge."

"Yes, so let's concentrate on that for now," he added.

"Okay," Calleigh said and cocked her head to the side. "I'm thinking you wanna look at those yourself."

"If it's no problem."

Calleigh smiled. "I'll send them to you as soon as possible."

"I appreciate it," Horatio added.

"And please take care of yourself, Horatio," she added. "Don't take this lightly."

Horatio nodded, appreciating her pat on his arm before he left her office. He felt tenser now, having talked to Eric and Calleigh about the situation, having become another case file in the lab. He was reluctant about the surveillance, because the more fuss they made about this the more serious the situation became.

He'd retired early to avoid all this drama, and now he felt like he was back to those days, when even his own home had been unsafe. When he retired Natalia suggested they move somewhere safer, somewhere quiet and far away from the dangers of the city, but back then he couldn't imagine uprooting himself from Miami. Now he was beginning to wish he'd listened to her.

He stepped back into the lab and a familiar figure waited for him at the end of the hall, her arms crossed. Natalia saw him and smiled sardonically, walking the rest of the way to meet him. "I was wondering when my daughter learned to take the bus to the lab."

He smiled. "We were in the neighborhood, just thought we'd stop by and say hello."

"What's... in the neighborhood?"

"You."

Natalia chuckled, looking at him but she stopped. He sounded and acted like her husband but suddenly something in his eyes was missing. "What's wrong?" she said, a tad concerned.

He shook his head and looked down, smiling slightly. "Nothing's wrong."

But she continued to look at him, analyzing his expression and she was about to comment on his tense posture when Ryan stepped into the hallway, announcing they may have gotten a hit on their AFIS search. She looked at Horatio reluctantly, but he was smiling now, so she shook her head. Pregnancy always did make her a tad paranoid.

"Alright, um, I'll be home around six," she said.

"I'll be waiting," he said, looking at her and smiling, and she seemed to relax then, giving him a kiss before she returned to the DNA lab.

Horatio watched her go, feeling like utter scum for lying to her, but trying to put it out of his mind he went off in search of Valera to take his daughter home.

------

Calleigh stepped out of her office that afternoon, briefcase in hand. The sun was beginning to set, casing an orange light upon the lab, and the night shift was beginning to pour into the building. She was always eager to go home and let them take over the lab and the streets, but tonight she was weary.

She walked by the layout room and stopped, glanced inside and Eric sat in front of the table, hunched over the note with a magnifying glass in hand. She approached him slowly, making sure there was no one around, and rested her forearm on his shoulder before tenderly pinning his earlobe with her middle and index finger.

Eric looked up at her and smiled. "Where's Mari?"

"I was on my way to get her." He nodded and looked at the note again. "You have something?"

Eric pressed his lips together and shook his head. "Popular paper brand, generic ink, no fingerprints. Handwriting does point to a guy, but there's no way to tell with all certainty, and there's nothing distinctive about it, except he's right-handed."

Calleigh sighed. "So we have nothing."

Eric looked at the note, thinking, but with very little evidence there wasn't much they could do. "This could be anyone, Calleigh," he said. "Anyone H put away, anyone he might've hurt during an arrest—"

"Could be the Mala Noche," she theorized.

"Maybe," Eric said reluctantly. "I don't know, the Mala Noche would've made their move already, and they may be the big bad gang in town, but they don't mess with kids," he said. "Whoever wrote this wouldn't hesitate to hurt Natalia or Violet."

Calleigh nodded. "So basically we _wish_ it was the Mala Noche."

"At least they'd be easier to find," Eric said, sighing.

"Alright, well, I've got a surveillance car two houses down from Horatio, and I have another one following Natalia home, just to be safe."

Eric smiled. "Thought of everything, huh?"

"That's why they call me the boss," she said cheerfully and began to walk away. "Don't be too late."

"Okay."

------

He stood in the middle of his study, hands on his hips and watching the pile of files in front of him.

Every case he'd worked on, every man he'd put away that was being released from prison or was released recently. It could take him days to go through them all, and time was something he felt he didn't have.

Hundreds of possibilities, hundreds of men all with the same motive. It was often the drawback of being the last face the criminal saw before he was sent to jail. Over the years he'd been threatened, hundreds if not thousands of times, but they were usually empty threats, soon forgotten as the years passed.

But this one was different. This one wasn't to his face. This one wasn't in front of witnesses or uttered out by a pissed off or nervous criminal. This one was carefully crafted, cleverly delivered, and he knew then maybe Calleigh had been right, because usually if the threat was carefully conducted, the crime was perfectly planned and already underway.

"What's all this?"

He turned around abruptly and Natalia was there, looking at the hundreds of files with her arms crossed.

"When did you get home?" he said.

"About 10 minutes ago," she said, frowning. "You didn't hear me?"

He shook his head, cursing at himself, wondering if two years of retirement and inactivity had already done damage to his instincts. His anxiety doubled then, because if he couldn't even hear his wife coming home, how was he supposed to keep them safe? Suddenly he was glad he'd taken Calleigh up on the surveillance offer.

Natalia put her hands on her hips, watching him, and his silence caused her to narrow her eyes at him. "I don't really know what's going on, and I don't know if I'm being too paranoid or too pregnant or both—"

"There's nothing—"

"It feels weird," she tried to explain, frustrated. "You _feel_ weird."

He smiled at her, putting his hands on her hips. She leaned into him, sighing, and he kissed her forehead tenderly. "I'm just reviewing some files for Calleigh."

"Why?" She pulled back and there were tears in her eyes, her brows furrowed.

Horatio framed her face with his hands. "I'm here all day, nothing to do," he explained.

Natalia sighed and looked down, shaking his head. "I just--" she began reluctantly. "I keep thinking you're cheating on me or something."

Horatio smiled, his heart thawing. "That, would never happen."

She sniffed and looked at him, blinking the unshed tears away. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize."

"These hormones," she sighed. She looked at him and he smiled at her, and she pressed her lips together reluctantly. "Are you sure everything's okay?"

He heard Eric and Calleigh's voices then, telling him she should know, and though on the back of his mind he knew they were right, he knew she had the right to know, he also couldn't bare the thought of the stressful situation added to the stress of her pregnancy and causing her any harm. He knew he was probably sacrificing himself in the process, but her wellbeing came before his.

"Everything's fine."

Hours later she lay in bed, her back to him, and sleeping.

Horatio sat in bed, staring towards the window and listening, but the neighborhood was quiet and the night moonless. He turned the volume up on the baby monitor and Violet's room was quiet as well. Logic told him to relax, but he couldn't help feeling like the proverbial calm before the storm.

He stood up, walked towards the window and the surveillance car was parked two houses down, the two officers inside commiserating. He felt odd being on this side of the process, being the one who needed protection when he'd spent his entire life being the protector.

Before going back to bed he stopped before his dresser, and reaching into the back of his underwear drawer he found his gun. It felt heavy and cold against his hands, due to the lack of inactivity, and as he walked back to bed he checked the chamber to make sure it was full.

Cocking it slowly, he put it under his pillow and lay back, eyes open and staring at the ceiling. He didn't know what he was waiting for, but the silence was too heavy to slow down the beating of his heart.

_to be continued_


End file.
